The following is an interview with epic fantasy author Michael Thom. In this interview, Fanbase Press President Bryant Dillon chats with Thom about the inspiration behind his book, The Vanguards of Scion, his passion for Dungeons & Dragons, and more!

Bryant Dillon, Fanbase Press President: Can you tell us a little about your background and how it led to you becoming an author?

Michael Thom: Well, it’s a long story, I’ll try to sum it up as briefly as I can. If I could pick a specific moment when I first remember the thought of wanting to create stories, it was the day after I saw The Empire Strikes Back in the theater in 1980. I had just turned eight and was already completely living and breathing Star Wars culture like most kids those days. I knew that George Lucas was the writer/creator of this thing that had profoundly taken over my life and had sparked my imagination. I thought. Someday I want to do for people what he had for me with Star Wars. I started making up stories for my friends to pretending we were in the Star Wars universe. I made up stories by myself with my Star Wars figures that were like fan fiction before I knew had ever the term.

Later, when I was about ten or eleven, I discovered tabletop RPG games, most notably Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I had to have all the rulebooks before my friends and I wanted to be the DM most often, and my friends always wanted me to continue because I liked worldbuilding. Also, I was an artist so I created all the cool maps and drawings to help my players visualize the worlds I was creating for them to immerse themselves in.

It wasn’t too long into my teen years that many of my players had suggested I write fantasy novels or make my game worlds into books. About the same time, I had discovered Stephen King and the Dragonlance novels. I started devouring fantasy and horror novels. My best friend at the time, Shone Doville, really encouraged me to read fantasy and introduced me to all the big fantasy series of the time. Then I started writing my first go at a fantasy series which became a trunk novel, but I learned a lot writing it and I became infatuated with writing. I took creative writing courses at the local college and read many how to write books and submitted many short stories to small literary magazines. I wrote about thirty short stories, mostly horror and science fiction, but only two of them were published. I got many rejection slips, but eventually some of them had little handwritten notes on them, and that was very encouraging to me.

Eventually life happened and I got married had a kid and writing wasn’t easy to get back to anymore. I dabbled and wrote a little every few years, but I didn’t get back into it seriously until about three years ago. Rachael (my wife now), my grown daughter Vanessa, my best friend Jarrod King, and Carrie Chi Lough (the beta reader who has been there since near the beginning), have been great cheerleaders for me in helping to finish this book. Their help has been invaluable and I can’t state that enough.

BD: For those who are unfamiliar with the title, what can tell us about the plot of your epic fantasy novel, The Vanguards of Scion?

MT: It has several plot threads, but the meat of the overall story is about a sort of mad scientist magician type character who has become so powerful that he was able to create a small pocket of a world at the cusp of many worlds called Scion, much like a hub at the center of a wagon wheel. There he can pull things from other worlds and build a sort of encyclopedia of knowledge and secret magics from other dimensions. He runs into a problem. His world starts to crumble and wither away, so he decides he must find a new place to reside for all his conquests and discoveries. He chooses the East Realm and picks people to give powers to so that they may prepare the East Realm for him to conquer and usher in his people.

BD: You describe the book as “a violent tale of five eccentric characters from different parts of The East Realm.” What type of readers do you think might enjoy this subject matter?

MT: People who like Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time, Star Wars and Quentin Tarantino movies. Horror movies and Stephen King.

BD: Do you mind telling our readers more about the world and main characters in The Vanguards of Scion?

MT: The East Realm is just one continent in the Known Lands, but it’s where this book takes place. It sits mostly below the equator of the planet so its northern region is desert and far south is icy. The desert in the north is ruled by the Belaz Empire, an exotic dark-skinned people who worship celestial bodies and the cosmos. The reason for this is because the capital Belaz City sits at the center of an ancient crater created by what they believed was a star that fell from the sky.

The mid-south region is broken up into kingdoms where many light skinned races war often with one another and fight for dominance.

Four of the viewpoint characters are approached by the King of Scion and offered powerful magic in exchange for servitude to him.

The main characters are:

Ivanos- an old mercenary who was once a knight but failed his king and now seeks to redeem his honor. He is the first to be visited by the King of Scion.

Emmanora- a petite ‘milg’ assassin girl. ‘Milg’ are very short, slender humans with red wiry hair and freckles. Their entire race and culture is based on my wife’s Cajun upbringing in Louisiana. The milg actually live in tree houses in a bayou and catch crawfish. I pulled many things from Cajun culture into Emmanora’s story.

Vendronia- a witch with scarlet red skin who is a sort of shaman type character for the trogs. The trogs are somewhere between giants and Scandinavians. Their average height is eight feet tall. The trogs are a very violent society similar to Vikings. A significant part of Vendronia’s story is immersed in trog raids and their culture is explored extensively. She is orphaned with them and struggles to be accepted within a society where everyone is bigger and stronger than her.

Kazimir- A Belazonian alchemist who has struggled with his practice in the Hall of Alchemy in Belaz City. He is the scholarly hero of the story who seeks knowledge and has a insatiable curiosity which gets him in trouble more often than not. He also puts on shows with an acting troupe made up of his alchemist apprentices and fellow faculty at the Hall of Alchemy.

Aeile- a huntress who seeks to find a cure for her sister who has a life-threatening illness. She is on a mission to find the white mariheema flower which is said to be the only thing that will cure her sister. In her search, she is attacked by bandits and then is found by a dark mage with a proposition.

BD: What’s one thing about The Vanguards of Scion that you think might surprise our readers to know?

MT: Four of the main viewpoint characters are based on player characters of a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons game I ran for two years with friends and family. Emmanora is my wife’s character and she’s based on her personality. Vendronia is my daughter’s character and is heavily based on her. Kazimir is my friend Jarrod’s character and Aeile is my friend Mikki’s character.

BD: How would you describe your writing process when it comes to tackling novels, especially something in the epic fantasy genre?

MT: I love these kinds of questions, because they are the kind I looked for in interviews of my favorite authors growing up. I approach writing novels in a similar process to what I used building characters and worlds for my D&D games. Since I feel I’m a character focused author, I start making character profiles for my viewpoint characters, and then I usually draw a world map early on so I don’t get lost. Just drawing a map inspires me to ask lots of questions like, “What type of environment might be on the northern coast and why?” , “How does this influence the cultures that settled here and their society overall?” Questions like that I try to answer early on and that sparks many ideas for stories within the world.

When it comes to the actual writing, I would say I’m more of a gardener like George RR Martin who only knows the outcome of what is going to happen a chapter or two ahead. I have a vague idea of how it might end, but I’m also not afraid to change the ending completely midway through the book. I like to see where the characters take the story and follow their behavior rather than force them into my plot.

I write on average 1500-2000 words on a good day. Recently, during the quarantine, I’ve started getting up at 8am, eating breakfast and trying to write until around 1pm every day. It’s what Stephen King has often said works best for him, and I’m starting to think it works for me because, after having been rested, my brain has much more energy to use on creative thinking than trying to write later in the evening. It seems to be turning out more words than before when I was more of a night owl.

BD: What do you enjoy most about writing for the epic fantasy genre?

MT: I love that it is difficult. You have to come up with entire worlds, cities, cultures, races and religions. I love throwing things into the mix that are unconventional twists on environmental settings and biology. I also love writing historical fantasy set before technology because it feels more intimate to me to get right up in someone’s face with a sword or a knife, and I used to go camping and hiking a lot in my younger years. I enjoy writing in natural settings like forests, caves and mountains. Epic fantasy has all of that. I’ve written a cyberpunk novel that may see the light of day eventually when I finish it, but my passion lies mostly in historical epic fantasy. It’s been that way for many years, and I don’t see me straying away from it.

BD: Has your writing style been influenced by any other specific creators?

MT: Most definitely. Ironically, though I see myself as a fantasy author, my favorite author and biggest influence is Stephen King. I’ve read most of his books, more than any other author, and I think what you read the most has a big impact on how you develop your writing voice. I’ve been told several times my voice is similar to his, but I don’t know if it is or not personally, because authors tend to be too close to their own work to see it clearly for what it is.

Star Wars is also a big influence, along with Quentin Tarantino films, George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Raymond E. Feist’s Rift War Saga and the classic western films are a big influence, like Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood and Big Jake with John Wayne. Also, I have to mention Breaking Bad. I find myself looking to create the kind of suspense we get in those kinds of films. I’m big on suspense. I love building suspense and letting it simmer until it snaps.

BD: You’re also a fantasy illustrator who has worked professionally as both a graphic designer and a tattoo artist. What have these experiences been like and how they, if at all, tie into your work on The Vanguards of Scion?

MT: Most of my time spent as an illustrator was in pursuit of doing covers for epic fantasy novels, so that I might get acquainted with how to create a good one and do my own. I’ve done work for several small gaming companies, most recently Shadowrun owned by Catalyst Games. I also played in a metal band for many years and got a job at a t-shirt printing shop to help the band get shirts made that eventually turned into a graphic designer job when one of the artists that worked there left and they knew I had been learning to use the design software at home for band flyers. This helped me tremendously in learning to design book covers. Later, I went to a local tattoo school and got my license and started tattooing so I could afford to work four days a week and have extra time to write because I found I could make more money tattooing for less time than my graphic design job.

I want to add that I also spent about twenty-two years waiting tables and bartending at various corporate restaurant chains. The social environment was very crucial in my opinion to me learning how to develop characters. Observing a diversity of people and behaviors really makes for great inspiration. Some of my regulars and co-workers ended up as a template for characters in my book.

BD: As part of Fanbase Press' 10th anniversary, we’re taking part in a company wide initiative called Stories Matter which focuses on how universal communication through stories allows all of us to examine the essentials of human existence, to understand ourselves better and to grow and/or heal, to pass on importance values, knowledge, and lessons to the next generation, and to connect with one another through empathy and compassion.

So, with that in mind, I pose to each of you, why do you believe stories matter and how do those beliefs connect with your work on The Vanguards of Scion?

MT: Stories matter more than most people realize. Almost everything we know as a human being is connected to a story we were told or read. Stories are so important I think that they matter more to people than concrete facts, which is not the best thing, but its true. Humans are emotional beings. We thrive on our emotions and the stories we collect or develop in our heads about the people close to us are the biggest influence on our beliefs and feelings about them. This is why it’s so hard to change someone’s mind about how they feel about someone because the story in their head they carry around is what makes them feel good about who they are themselves. If you want to change someone’s mind about something or someone, tell them a story that moves them to such an emotional level they feel differently about life. For good or for bad, preachers and cult leaders do it all the time (mostly for bad in my opinion).

I try to make people feel something genuine and moving in my book and hope that they feel the characters are people they’ve known or could know in real life. If I have done that, then I feel successful as an author no matter how many books are sold.

BD: At Fanbase Press, we're always interested in what our fellow creators are fans of themselves. It doesn't have to be necessarily geeky or fantasy-related, but what are you currently a fan of? What have you recently enjoyed that you'd want to share with our readers?

MT: Stephen King, The Beatles, Slayer, Metallica, Star Wars (all of them), and Game of Thrones (both the books and the show) are most certainly at the top of that list.

Recently, I’d say Brian Lee Durfee’s first book The Forgetting Moon. It’s been a while since I found an epic fantasy series I like as much as his debut. The second book is said to be even better which I just started. I’m also reading The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I have a bad habit of reading too many books simultaneously. It’s hard to break because I love everything I’m reading equally and can’t keep myself from reading a few more chapter in each.

I love The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson and have reserved a signed copy of Rhythm of War from England.

I’m an avid vinyl record collector. I have all The Beatles catalogue on vinyl and most of my favorite band’s albums.

I’m constantly on the lookout for quality fantasy films to enjoy, but most fall short of my hopes for them. Game of Thrones is my favorite, but Vikings was really good, and I think the Lord of the Rings films were masterfully done.

BD: Are there any other upcoming projects you’d like to mention before we wrap up?

MT: I’m about two chapters away from finishing The Vanguards of Scion part 2: The Dragonmaker and it will be out in June, hopefully. Parts 1 and 2 are actually intended to be Book 1 of the series, which is called The Flow of Bloodand Fealty. I released it in two parts, much like some of the British versions of books have done with Stormlight Archive for marketing reasons, but I plan to release them both in one volume sometime later this year. The series should be seven books total, but we will see where it goes. It’s a bit early to say.

BD: And, finally, where can our readers find you and The Vanguards of Scion online?

The following is an interview with Leslie K. Lutz regarding the release of her YA novel, Fractured Tide, from HarperCollins. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Lutz about the inspiration behind the story, her creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that Fractured Tide may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of your YA novel, Fractured Tide! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Leslie Lutz: Thanks so much for having me! Fractured Tide tells the story of a dive trip gone terribly wrong, stranding teenage Sia and three other survivors on a time-bending island. While the reef just beyond the breakers is beautiful and full of wonder (and food!), it’s also patrolled by a sea monster. Sia has to brave the waters, and the dangerous jungle inland, if she’s going to help everyone survive and find a way home. There’s more—dread, dead people who don’t die, dreadful sinkholes, and general monster mayhem—but that’s the quick and dirty version.

It’s hard to unearth that first moment of inspiration, but when I was a kid, we moved from England, where I drank a lot of tea and wore fancy dresses, to Mississippi, to live in the middle of nowhere on a lake. The water drew me so powerfully then. It was adventure, for sure, but I also knew how dangerous the lake was, as the banks were lousy with water moccasins. We swam in it anyway, because there was nothing else to do in middle-of-nowhere Mississippi, but most of us avoided the most dangerous part--the island in the middle of our bay. To all the neighborhood kids, that island became pretty much the equivalent of Boo Radley’s house. When it comes to the water, I think I never got over that beautiful combination of wonder and fear.

BD: The novel deftly combines your real-life love of scuba diving, as well as your interest in creature horror. What can you share with us about your creative process in weaving these interests together, and what have been some of your creative influences?

LKL: I love ocean diving, but when I moved to Fort Worth, Texas, I became hopelessly landlocked. My craving for the water just seeped into my laptop and took over.

For research, I decided I just had to book a vacation to dive just off the coast of Key Largo so I could explore the Spiegel Grove, which is a beautiful sunken ship about 90 feet down. Turns out scuba charters won’t take you out there without the right training, so I signed up for an advanced skills class at the place closest to me—a scuba park just east of Dallas. There’s pretty much nothing to see out in that lake except brown rocks and brown fish and few rusted cars, but we all had a great time that weekend—until we had to train for the deep dive.

Since most lakes in Texas aren’t going to break any depth records, the engineers of the park actually had to core out a hole to provide a “deep” dive, getting students like me to 60 feet so we could check all our boxes for the certification. This hole in the lake is called the Silo, and it’s essentially a muddy nightmare. You can’t see squat, since the silt not only blocks out the light above, but also makes reading the instruments on your own wrist nearly impossible. I’d never experienced such a complete oblivion and existential terror in my life. That experience became the inspiration for the sinkhole in Fractured Tide, where our intrepid divers must descend again and again to discover the island’s secrets.

The scariest creature I’ve encountered diving is a reef shark, and they’re actually not that dangerous, so for beast inspiration, I had to go to some of my favorite authors—Stephen King and Jeff VanderMeer. I think I reread the first tentacle monster attack scene in The Mist about twenty times, just trying to get a handle on how King establishes that excellent balance of monster movement and psychological detail. If you haven’t read it, you should, but do NOT eat first. Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation had an enormous influence on me, as well, and I love the way he teases out the details of the monster while bathing his characters in an atmosphere of dread. I have to admit the reason my sea monster glows is because of Jeff VanderMeer’s influence.

BD: In light of Fractured Tide being a Young Adult novel, do you feel that - as a writer - you must approach horror and/or suspense with a specific set of narrative tools to accommodate the targeted age group?

LKL: It’s a tough line to walk, writing “scary” for a 13-and-up novel that also has crossover potential. You can be a little gross, but not too gross. At the same time, if you don’t make it frightening enough, you’ll lose the older readers.

I decided I wanted a full-on monster attack early on, something cinematic and wide in scope. Because I’m a rabid Jaws fan (Go, shark!), I wanted it to happen when my main character was stranded on a boat around the size of the Orca. I think it helped having that entire monster attack filtered through the main character’s perspective, keeping the blood-o-meter in the lower numbers. Sia only catches flashes and bits of the carnage, which means readers can fill in the gaps with their own wicked imagination. I think creating a sense of dread is a great way to walk the YA horror line, as you can scare without dumping a bucket of intestines in the reader’s lap.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Sia’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

LKL: Fractured Tide is adventure/horror, but it’s also a story about a family that’s falling apart. Many adults tell teenagers that they have it so easy—it’s all pep rallies and corsages and crushes, right? The reality for many teens is lot harder. Sia lost her father to incarceration three years before the start of the story, and she’s had to take on an adult role in the family ever since. And there are other characters on the island—Ben and Graham for example—who deal with death and disillusionment at a far higher level than most people their age. I think a lot of teens will recognize themselves in these characters, and I hope they know that they’re not alone.

More specifically, I hope children of incarcerated parents see themselves in this book. I used to volunteer at the Atlanta Women’s Prison as a GED teacher, and I had the privilege to read the essays of so many women who had really positive relationships with their children on the outside. In pop culture, we don’t usually see that reality. Either you have Barry from the Flash, who must free his falsely accused father from prison, or Barry’s sidekick, whose incarcerated father is so evil the poor dude wants nothing more than to forget he ever existed. But that’s not real life. Most children of incarcerated parents don’t have the innocent parent, or the evil parent. They have a parent who’s locked away, making up for a mistake, and missing their kid like hell. I wanted to tell that story, and I hope it shines a light on those kids of incarcerated parents who so rarely find themselves in books.

BD: What makes HarperCollins the perfect home for Fractured Tide?

LKL: I love my editors and the marketing folks at HarperCollins. The Blink imprint is a cosier group of authors than a lot of the bigger imprints where a new author like me can get lost. I also can’t believe my book is coming out with the same imprint as Kwame Alexander, who I frequently hear on NPR when I’m driving to pick up my kid from school. The folks at Blink and HarperCollins are always responsive to questions, as I’ve heard that not all the big houses are like that.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

LKL: I’m almost finished revising a novel about a reluctant beauty queen from Savannah who’s being haunted by a parasitic ghost. Honestly, it’s a tough project. I’m using a combination of documents to build the story, including psychiatrist transcripts, a recording of a 911 call, missing persons’ reports, and other found documents, all layered around a first-person narrative. Like Fractured Tide, this story has quite a few water scenes, although it’s more like the muddy waters of my youth than the crystal clear waters of the Keys.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Fractured Tide and your other work?

LKL: My website has all of my social media contacts and order links, so readers can go to lesliekarenlutz.com for pretty much everything. I’m active on Twitter and Instagram, where I occasionally post pictures of my daughter’s chickens, since that has a lot to do with absolutely nothing. But they’re cute. On my website, you can read my creature blog, in which I mull over various forgotten and underrated water beasties. If I run out of material, I “interview” famous monsters about their favorite holidays. I’ve got a newsletter, apparently, so if you sign up, I will try to put out something inconsistently brilliant, and hopefully entertaining.

Leslie Lutz is the author of FRACTURED TIDE (May 5, 2020; HarperCollins/Blink) as well as a devoted fan of scuba diving and creature horror. Her writing has appeared in various journals, including Orca Literary Journal, Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, Typishly, Number One, The Lyric, and Raintown Review. She lives in Fort Worth and is a member of International Thriller Writers, Horror Writers Association, Editorial Freelancers Association and the DFW Writers' Workshop, and has been a speaker at the DFW Writers’ Convention. She draws on her volunteer experiences—including her time teaching GED courses at the Atlanta Women's Prison—to tell stories that challenge stereotypes about forgotten people. FRACTURED TIDE won the 2018 Frisco First Chapter Contest.

The following is an interview with Scott Kenemore regarding the release of his alternate history novel, Lake of Darkness, from Skyhorse Publishing / Talos Press. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Kenemore about the inspiration behind the story, his creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that Lake of Darkness may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the upcoming release of your alternate history novel, Lake of Darkness! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Scott Kenemore: Lake of Darkness is about a police officer tasked with apprehending a mysterious decapitationist operating in Chicago’s African-American neighborhoods during World War One.

Between 2004 and 2009, I worked in community development on the South Side of Chicago, and for years I’ve wanted to write a novel set in those neighborhoods during the early 20th century. More specifically, I was interested in how law enforcement and crime-solving would function on the South Side during an era when there was not equality within the Chicago Police Department itself. At first glance, the CPD can appear to have been one of the more historically progressive police departments. It’s had African-American officers since right after the Civil War, it was a leader in recruiting “police matrons” – women who were sort of proto-female officers – and historians think Chicago probably recruited the first black female police officer anywhere in the United States in the early 1910s. So, a very progressive history, right? But you scratch that surface, and you see that in the early years, black CPD officers did not even get uniforms. As I put it in the book, it was just sort of: “Here’s a gun and a badge, and keep things quiet in your part of town.” When black officers were killed in the line of duty, they didn’t initially get the kind of pomp-and-circumstance funerals that white officers did. But there were also all these inflection points when things changed within the department—and then black officers did get uniforms, or got to be partnered with cops of other races, or got assigned patrols in white parts of city. So, I was also interested in doing a cosmic horror mystery set during one of these inflection points when times in Chicago were changing.

BD: The novel deftly weaves various genres together, including detective thriller, cosmic horror, and historical fiction. What can you share with us about your creative process in intertwining these genres into your narrative thread, and what have been some of your creative influences?

SK: In terms of process, I don’t think there was any particular innovation on my part; so many excellent novels and stories have already intertwined those elements. A lot of cosmic horror starts out as a mystery or whodunit, but the protagonist quickly discovers that more is at play than he or she had initially believed . . . and those further elements lead them to death or madness.

My creative influences are too numerous to name, but for this novel, I was certainly thinking of the terror and bewilderment I feel when I read writers like H.P. Lovecraft or Robert Aickman, and the American-British writer Charles Palliser has been extremely influential on this book when it comes to historical settings, mysteries, and narrative surprises. I would also be remiss if I failed to mention Timuel Black – who is a historian and not a fiction writer – because his Bridges of Memory books are, collectively, probably the finest historical account of The Great Migration in Chicago. I did a lot of research for Lake of Darkness, but Bridges of Memory influenced me more than anything. (As an aside, Timuel Black had a new book come out last year. . . when he was 100 years old. Talk about #WriterGoals! I’ll be proud if I can keep going for even close to that long.)

BD: Given your previous work in community development on the South Side of Chicago, how do you feel that this experience impacted you as a writer, as well as the stories that you tell?

SK: I moved to Chicago in 2004, the same time I started the job. I’d grown up in Indiana, had gone to college in Ohio, and had most recently been living in Iowa. Lots of people in their 20s make the move to Chicago from those locations, but I think a whole lot of them land in neighborhoods like Lincoln Park or Logan Square and then they never really explore the entire city. They certainly don’t explore south of the Museum of Science and Industry. My job introduced me to compelling parts of the city with rich and complicated histories (often steeped in interesting layers of corruption and vice). I would have missed all of that if I’d just lived along Milwaukee Avenue and commuted back and forth to the Loop.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Lake of Darkness’ story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

SK: On one level, I hope that readers of Lake of Darkness get the kind of bewildering buzz that I enjoy whenever I read good cosmic horror, but I also hope that they discover something new about Chicago that makes them want to learn more about the city and its neighborhoods. In terms of why I thought it was important to bring the story to life. . . that’s harder to articulate. A lot of creative writing runs on something I have heard academics call “non-propositional knowledge;” you know something is true, but it’s not something that can be easily passed along in sentence form. “The capital of Illinois is Springfield,” is propositional knowledge. Anyone who reads that proposition/sentence now has that knowledge. But when I “know” how to ride a motorcycle or play the violin, I cannot pass along that knowledge in a sentence. Likewise, when I “know” that this character needs to say X or reveal Y at Z juncture in the story, it’s hard to tell you how I know it. There were certainly feelings and inclinations that made me want to write Lake of Darkness, but it’s difficult to lay them out in a coherent way. I saw Joyce Carol Oates give a talk at Kenyon College in the late 1990s, and she spoke about the feeling of being “with story” in the same way someone with a womb can be “with child.” That’s the best articulation I’ve yet heard of how a writer feels when they “know” they need to tell a story.

BD: What makes Skyhorse Publishing/Talos Press the perfect home for Lake of Darkness?

SK: From humble beginnings in 2007, Skyhorse has really emerged as an important champion of 21st century horror. There’s the Talos imprint, and the work they do with Night Shade Books, and other stuff, too. Several solid publishers are doing horror right now—no question about it—but Skyhorse has made its commitment clear, and it’s a very exciting place to be.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

SK: I don’t like to talk too much about works in progress, but I have recently started what I think will be my next novel. It is “space horror” in the vein of Philip K. Dick’s A Maze of Death or films like Event Horizon and Alien.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Lake of Darkness and your other work?

Scott Kenemore is the nationally bestselling author of Lake of Darkenss (May 5, 2020; Skyhorse Publishing/Talos Press); The Grand Hotel; Zombie Ohio; Zombie, Illinois and numerous other works of horror, fiction, and satire. He spent his twenties and thirties working in community development on the South Side of Chicago—specifically for nonprofit entities that fought redlining and advocated for fair housing policies in some of the city's most segregated neighborhoods. As he and his colleagues worked with activists, the faith community, and nonprofits to try to roll back some of the damage done by de-facto housing segregation, he began learning how these communities had been shaped by the leaders who had built the city more than a century ago.

The following is an interview with author Clive Fleury regarding the recent release of his book, Kill Code. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Fleury about the inspiration behind the new book, his creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that the story may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of your sci-fi novel, Kill Code, from TCK Publishing! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Clive Fleury: Kill Code: A Dystopian Science Fiction Novel is set in the future – 2031 – and is the story of how an ex-cop, Hogan Duran, discovers that all he has believed in is a lie. As its central premise, it asks the question: In a world gone wrong, can one man make a difference? Or will he die trying?

I’ve been thinking about writing Kill Code for several years – constructing a story that was not just entertaining but also made the reader consider the way our society is developing. This sounds heavy, but the sci-fi genre provides an ideal vehicle to address moral questions while at the same time offering a damn good read. Hopefully, in Kill Code, I’ve succeeded with both these objectives.

BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in bringing the dystopian tale to life, and what have been some of your creative influences?

CF: When I start writing a novel, the first stage is to develop a structure – a beginning, middle, and end. I always envisaged Kill Code to be book one of a sci-fi trilogy, so in this case I also had to map out a rough structural plan for the other novels. Then, I spent time thinking about the need to build a coherent picture of the future world and plotting the background of the principal characters who inhabit it. After doing all this, it’s down to the hard work of actually writing, which I never find easy! The whole process takes at least a year.

On creative influences, when I was eleven years old, after reading Planet of the Apes, I thought: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to spend my life writing stories like this?” so that was a pretty big moment. As for other novel and writers, I’m a bit of a magpie, so no novel genre or novelist is out of bounds and many different people stimulate my creative juices. However, I read the late Elmore Leonard for his superb dialogue; Philip K. Dick for his sci-fi twists and turns, and insightful quotes like the so-true “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away;" and finally George Orwell for telling it how it is and will be.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Kill Code’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

CF: At one level, I want Kill Code to be considered pure entertainment – a page-turner that readers can race through and enjoy. But I also hope that they think about the story and how real the dystopian future world I have created might be. Without seeming too preachy, the problems of global warming and wealth inequality are only going to get worse. The Coronavirus has underlined that we live in a society where everyone is interconnected. We cannot afford to continue to have one tiny group of rich, powerful people living a life so radically different and divorced from the experiences and struggles of most folk. It’s a recipe for disaster.

BD: Do you foresee expanding the novel into subsequent books or even into other entertainment mediums, if given the opportunity?

CF: Kill Code was always envisaged as the first of a trilogy. Each book was to have a self-contained story arc, but there was to be another narrative arc that would span all three novels. So, anyone could read any of the books separately but to get maximum enjoyment they should complete all three novels.

On other media for Kill Code, I would love to make it into a graphic novel, put together by someone who has considerably more artistic skill than me. Besides being an author, I work in TV and film and am actively trying to get Kill Code produced as a TV series. If anyone out there has any thoughts, suggestions or could help me achieve either or both of these goals please get in touch.

BD: What makes TCK Publishing the perfect home for this book?

CF: TCK is a small publisher which really looks after their authors. I got a lot of editorial help from them, as well as advice on marketing the book. It was a very hands-on process that was both challenging and rewarding.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

CF: I’m currently working on Blood Code, book two of the trilogy. The Coronavirus has meant that I’m locked in my apartment, so I have no excuses not to write. I’m hoping the book will be complete by the end of the year. Fingers crossed I can achieve that goal.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Kill Code and your other work?

CF: The best way to find information about Kill Code is of course to read it. I would love you to buy the novel and, if possible, leave a review.

I also have an Amazon author’s page which tells you about me and has a listing of other books I have written.

The following is an interview with author Barbara Barnett regarding the recent release of her book, Alchemy of Glass. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Barnett about the inspiration behind the new book, her creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that the story may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the upcoming release of your novel, Alchemy of Glass, from Simon & Schuster! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Barbara Barnett: Thank you! Alchemy of Glass is a hopefully worthy sequel to The Apothecary’s Curse, which was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Debut Novel, and although I encourage readers to start with Apothecary, I believe they can feel comfortable beginning the journey with the second novel without being lost.

Alchemy of Glass brings us back into the universe of Gaelan Erceldoune, Simon Bell, and Dr. Anne Shawe with a twisted, spiraling narrative that spans from 1826 London to strange futuristic Chicago and all points between with cameo appearances by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and even Nicola Tesla!

In the catacombs of an ancient ruined monastery, hidden away in the Eildon Hills of Scotland, a land of myth and mystery--the place where immortal apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune found sanctuary as a lad-- Gaelan discovers a journal, apparently written by his old friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chronicling an adventure into the Otherworld, a land of fairy castles and filigree trees hung with Spanish moss.

Falling from the journal’s pages, a small piece of glass, which Gaelan recognizes as a fragment long missing from a stained glass panel he’d created a century earlier. When the opalescent glass seems to come alive in his hand, Gaelan is suddenly thrust into strange world far from the fantastical dreamscape Conan Doyle describes.

Alchemy of Glass weaves a tale magical as spun glass and terrifying as a shattered mirror, drawing upon cutting edge science and the most ancient of Celtic mythology, intertwining the magic of fairy lore and the harsh reality of difficult choices, returning us to the world of Gaelan Erceldoune as his past, present, and future collide.

The new novel is a confluence of inspirations. I’ve always had a fascination with glass, crystal, stained glass. And I’ve always been curious about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s long-standing fascination with the fairy folk. How does a physician/journalist/ and creator of the most logical rational character in fiction possess such an undying belief in fairies. At the same time, I wanted to push forward the story I began in Apothecary, which I left quite intentionally ambiguous at the end. I also wanted to explore the beginnings of Simon and Gaelan’s frenemies-ship—and Gaelan’s relationship with Dr. Anne Shawe. So all of those conspired in influence Alchemy but allowed me to go in new directions. Although it’s not a romance per se, Alchemy of Glass, like the first installment have parallel love stories at their core. This time, in addition to moving forward with Anne and Gaelan (in what I hope is an unexpected way), I wanted to go back into Gaelan’s romantic history, as well.

BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in weaving the more fantastical and scientific elements together for this story, and what have been some of your creative influences?

BB: My philosophy has always followed the Arthur Clarkian model that magic is what we don’t yet understand of science. So, the magical/fantasy elements of Alchemy of Glass to me always had to be grounded in real science. Now, how to make that work, make sense, and still possess that bit of magic? That’s the magic of writing (I hope).

So, no matter how magical, strange or fantastical (even the mythological elements), I would always ask the what if it was possible that… In that way, I ask the same question about whether, no matter how improbable something seems, is it truly “impossible.” It’s a very Conan Doyle-ish approach.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Alchemy of Glass’ story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

BB: At its heart, Alchemy of Glass, like the first novel, Apothecary’s Curse is about exploiting science and technology without the understanding the potential consequences. Whether that happens in the Nineteenth Century or far into the future, or our own time, those consequences can resonate far and wide, echoing and amplifying forever. Oddly for the times we are in, the novel (both the historical narrative taking place in 1826 and the modern narrative) has a pathological agent at its heart. It’s not a pandemic story in the classical sense, but it struck me the other day how much the novel is about viruses of various varieties.

BD: As a follow-up to your Bram Stoker Award-nominated work on The Apothecary's Curse, how do you feel that your approach to Alchemy of Glass allowed you to explore new tools as a creative storyteller?

BB: I definitely explored new ground as a storyteller. I took more risks (which I hope have paid off), having a major part of the novel take place (possibly) in the mind of a main character. That allowed me to create and explore a rather surrealistic landscape, leaving (I hope) the reader guessing along with the character whether he’s in reality or some sort of fever dream. I also realized after Apothecary came out that the whole subject of telomeres was in the public consciousness. I needed to up that game as well, since telomeres aren’t really in the realm of SFF anymore (not really), so I went in a slightly different direction there as well, since in the first novel, I left it quite ambiguous about what exactly it was that made Gaelan immortal in the first place.

BD: What makes Simon & Schuster the perfect home for your novel?

BB: My publisher is actually the imprint Pyr, which published Apothecary. Pyr is great, because it’s never tried to pigeonhole my work in a specific genre (other than fantasy). My work is, by design, cross-genre, taking in historical, medical, SF, Fantasy and underpinned by a love story.

Try to categorize that! Pyr never tried, so I am eternally grateful to editorial director Rene Sears for her faith in my work!!

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

BB: I am incredibly excited to have a completely different project to be released in July. Published by Sellers Media/RSVP, it will be a daily, boxed Lord of the Rings Trivia Calendar called The Lord of Trivia. It’s a 2021 calendar, and the first of three annual Middle-earth themed calendars I’ll be doing for Sellers.

I am also working a three other novels (!) in various states of completion. One is a third entry into the TAC-vers of Gaelan Erceldoune, another is a novel based on the British legends of Tamlin and Thomas the Rhymer (Gaelan is a descendent of Thomas—so there is that connection.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Alchemy of Glass and your other work?

The following is an interview with author Caroline Angel regarding the recent release of her novel, Madman Across the Water, from Red Cape Publishing. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Angel about the inspiration behind the novel, her creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that Madman Across the Water may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of your novel, Madman Across the Water, from Red Cape Publishing! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Caroline Angel: Thank you! "Madman Across the Water" was a song I heard (and loved) as a small child, and I have tried, many times, to tell a story based on the haunting lyrics. It was only when my nephew told me of a modern-day internet legend that I took the story through to completion, based loosely on the legend, the lyrics, and a whole lot of imagination.

BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in weaving the mystery and horror genres together for this story, and what have been some of your creative influences?

CA: I am what is loosely termed a "pantser," as in I don’t plot out a story, I just start and go from there. I let each chapter/passage flow, sometimes going back to polish, sometimes moving forward to take the story on another level. I did write this book like a movie or TV show, with definite breaks (like ad breaks) that take you from one scene to another. I also think of my writing as putting down many threads, then slowly weaving them together until we have a climax. I don’t know that I have a definable creative influence, I just love to read, and am inspired by many stories and many styles.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Madman Across the Water’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

CA: Wow, this is a hard one! I think, if nothing else, I can show people to never give up on your dreams. I’d like people to think that if I can do it, perhaps so can they. For me, it was important to prove that my dream of being an author wasn’t just a dream, that the words inside me could make people read and enjoy them, despite the many critics and naysayers. Not one, I might add, have ever read the story!

BD: Do you foresee expanding the novel into subsequent books or even into other entertainment mediums, if given the opportunity?

CA: That would depend on my publisher. I did think the story was complete, but right at the last minute I threw in a hook, so if there is interest, there is absolutely another story that can be told.

BD: What makes Red Cape Publishing the perfect home for your novel?

CA: Trust! I have had a bit of a raw deal with two previous publishers, and when Red Cape offered to take my book on, I knew that this was where I should be, and that they would give The Madman the home it always deserved. BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

CA: Yes, there is, my novel, Origin of Evil, was recently released, and I am drawing to a close on the sequel to that novel. There is at least one more book in that series, though with all the ideas I have, there could be many more. BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Madman Across the Water and your other work?

CA: I have Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr, all under @ucat42, as well as my website (carolineangel.com), and I engage with anyone/everyone that would like to talk to me. Of course, the Red Cape website is another place, and I have author pages on Goodreads and Amazon.

The following is an interview with Julian Peters regarding the recent release of his genre-bending book, Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry, from Plough Publishing Press. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Peters about the inspiration behind this ambitious endeavor, his creative process in adapting poetry to a visual medium, the impact that the anthology may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of your poetry comics anthology, Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry, through Plough Publishing Press! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the concept of the anthology, and what inspired you to take on this groundbreaking project?

Julian Peters: Thank you! Poems to See By is an anthology of 24 classic English-language poems presented in the form of comics. The book makes use of the symbiotic image/text relationship that is characteristic of comics, pairing the original lines of poetry with comics drawings to bring out the meanings of the poems in new ways.

Although this is the first book-length collection of my “poetry comics,” I’ve actually been making these kinds of works for over a decade now, and even much earlier, actually, as I recently rediscovered a comics version of Scottish poet Robbie Burns’ poem, “Scots Wha Hae,” that I drew when I was ten years old.

BD: The anthology deftly adapts well-known poems through a visual medium. What can you share with us about your creative process in interpreting the poems artistically, and what have been some of your creative influences?

JP: Each of the visual adaptations featured in the anthology has its own visual style, which generally seeks to capture the particular atmosphere and feeling that each poem spontaneously evoked in me as I would read it. Since comics are an inherently narrative medium, I also try to find a way to superimpose some kind of more-or-less defined story arc on to the poem, which may be suggested by the order in which the various poetic images in the original text appear or reappear. In terms of influences, I should mention that I grew up partly in Italy, where there is a long tradition of introducing young readers to classic literature through comics. It was my childhood and adolescent readings of these comics adaptations of famous short stories, novels, and plays that gave me something of an initial template for attempting to do the same with poetry.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Poems to See By will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this project was important for you to bring to life?

JP: Poetry can seem intimidating to many readers, and my hope is that these visual interpretations will provide a more accessible entry point into an understanding and appreciation of this beautiful, but somewhat neglected, literary art form. As for those who already love poetry, these comics can provide them with an opportunity to experience some of their favorite poems in a new way and from another perspective.

BD: The anthology not only provides your artistic interpretations of the poems, but the original written work itself. Do you feel that this juxtaposition of the content may provide assistance to those who may struggle with reading comprehension?

JP: I think it’s quite natural that, after reading a comics adaptation of a poem, readers would want to see what the poetic text looks like in its original form. For those who are having difficulty with reading comprehension, being able to easily flip back and forth between the two versions should facilitate the comics version’s use as a kind of visual guide through the original poem.

BD: What makes Plough Publishing Press the perfect home for Poems to See By?

JP: Plough Publishing Press was founded one hundred years, but it’s only in the last few that they’ve begun publishing comics. In this short period, however, they’ve come out with some exceptional publications in that medium, including a comics biography of Martin Luther and a graphic novel about Nelson Mandela written by John Carlin, who also wrote the book which formed the basis for the Clint Eastwood film, Invictus. I’m proud to share a publisher with these works. Long before the book project with Plough had begun to take shape, I published a number of poetry comics in their magazine, Plough Quarterly. I was really impressed by its wide-ranging and thoughtful articles, as well as its attention to design and frequent inclusion of traditional illustration, and I was confident that the publishing house would do a great job with the book.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

JP: At the moment, I’m working on a presentation brochure in comics form for the new MA Programme in Comics Studies at the University of East Anglia, which is the first program of its kind in the world. I’m also working on brief comics introductions to the life and work of Carl Sagan, as well as to the Sherlock Holmes’s story, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” both of which are to be used in grade school textbooks in India. More in the long term, I’ve begun writing the text component for a personal illustrated book project that will combine my fascination with nineteenth-century Japanese landscape prints and literary depictions of surreal and fantastical places, such as in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Poems to See By and your other work?

JP: You can view copious amounts of my work on my website, julianpeterscomics.com, and more recent creations and work-in-progress images on my Instagram account (@julianpeterscomics). I’m also publishing updates on the upcoming book and other projects on my Twitter page (@jpeterscomics) and on my Facebook artist’s page, under Julian Peters Comics.

The following is an interview with Mike Sherer regarding the recent release of his latest novel, Under a Raging Moon, from World Castle Publishing. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Sherer about the inspiration behind this story, his creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that the story may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of your latest novel, Under a Raging Moon, by World Castle Publishing! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Mike Sherer: The premise is that when a pregnant single mother is attacked by demons intent on her destruction, a "guardian angel" comes to her rescue by possessing her 12-year-old son. What inspired me to write this story was that I wanted to explore the relationship between mother and possessed son. Early on, the son is mortally wounded, and the only thing keeping him alive is the spirit possessing him. This spirit is trying to protect the mother from the attacking demons while keeping the boy alive, while the mother is trying to deal with this adult spirit in her son while fleeing for her and her son’s lives.

BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in bringing the horror novel to life, and what have been some of your creative influences?

MS: My process is to loosely outline the plot points, then rush non-stop through the first draft, then go over and over and over the story until I am satisfied. But each revision has a specific purpose. The second draft will be to check for plot holes and inconsistencies. The next draft will be to develop character. The next draft will be to fill out scenes with richer descriptions. The final draft will be to check for grammar. There are usually many more drafts than these, but this is the way I work. Get it quickly down on paper, then go back to enrich the story. My creative influences: Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, and William P. Blatty.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavor to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Under a Raging Moon’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

MS: I hope to impact readers by setting my stories in the real world with real people. I try to avoid exotic settings and fantastic worlds. I believe grounding incredible stories in reality makes them more frightening. Are you more concerned with what goes on in Transylvania? Or in that run-down house at the end of your street? Are you more frightened of zombies eating your brains? Or of that not-quite-right neighbor roaming your streets at night? I tried to ground this story in the reality of a small-town suburban community and inhabit it with real people dealing with real problems even before the scary stuff starts. I want to show that real life can be much more frightening than monster mash-ups in abandoned castles or haunted Victorian mansions.

BD: Do you foresee expanding the novel into subsequent books or even into other entertainment mediums, if given the opportunity?

MS: There is definitely a sequel potential. Without giving away too much, the story ends at an interesting place that begs to be continued. I would love to see this filmed. I wrote a screenplay that was filmed by a producer in LA and released direct-to-DVD: Hamal_18. It is listed on the ImdB site. That was an amazing experience I would love to undertake once again. I worked closely with the producer on the screenplay, he involved me in the casting sessions, then invited me to the premier at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood. A fascinating process.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

MS: My MG paranormal adventure novel, Shadytown, was released by INtense Publications on January 27th of this year. The publisher provided great support. I am currently securing interviews for it. If any of your readers would be interested in reviewing it, I can send them a PDF file. Just be aware it was written for a young reader; it is nothing like Under a Raging Moon. That is definitely an adult story. Shadytown is available in digital and paperback formats at Amazon. Also, I have a horror short story, Campground Host, that will appear in the April issue of Scribe Magazine, which is published by Breaking Rules.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Under a Raging Moon and your other work?

MS: Email is the easiest most direct way to reach me: m.sherer (at) yahoo (dot) com. Links to all my published works, and my travel blog (American Locations), are posted at my Wordpress site. I’m also on Facebook and Twitter: @mikewsherer. I also have an author page on Amazon.

The following is an interview with writer Aaron Reed regarding the recent release of the horror novel, Subcutanean. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Reed about the inspiration behind the novel, his creative process in bringing the story to life in light of the fact that each copy changes, the impact that the story may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of your horror novel, Subcutanean! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

Aaron Reed: Subcutanean is about two friends with a complex relationship, Orion and Niko, who find a secret basement underneath their house. As they explore it, they start to realize it's much bigger than it should be. Something down there is multiplying everything: architecture, possibilities, obsessions, people. They discover links to parallel realities and alternate possibilities, and soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous.

The twist is that the book's text is written in such a way that there are multiple ways each scene can play out. Each time a copy of the book is ordered, a new version is generated. No two copies are ever quite the same. Like the characters, you're left wondering what other possibilities might exist, and what other ways the story could go. This emerged from my background as a games writer, thinking about working the aesthetics of variable text into a traditional novel format. Gamers are used to discussing alternate possibilities with each other-- what happened in your own unique play-through-- and I thought it would be interesting to craft an experience like that for readers that wasn't a game, but which played with some of those aesthetics of alternate possibilities.

BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in crafting this horror story, especially given that it changes with each printing?

AR: Writing each scene was a very interesting challenge, because I didn't want one version to be the "best" or "canoncial" version-- I wanted any possible way the story could be told to be equally viable and interesting. I knew the overall shape of the story, and the changes don't ever branch it off in totally different directions, except for at the very ending. So, for each scene, it was a matter of thinking through the different ways of getting through it and how those might color your impressions of the characters and the rest of the book.

For instance, there are three possible introduction scenes you can get for the two main characters, that all relate the same event but with different things emphasized and focused on. They'll strike different readers differently, but I think one of them is more sympathetic to a certain character while another one is less so, and a third focuses on a different dynamic between the two. It was a lot of work to get to a version of all three of those scenes that I felt was equally strong, and was happy with any of them being your entry point into the world and the characters. You're going to take those ideas and impressions from that scene and relate everything that comes after to them. Even if none of the rest of the text were different, you're reading subtly different stories based on which one of those introductions you got.

There's a great quote from the filmmaker Andrew Tarkovsky: "A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books." That's more literally true with Subcutanean, but really the book's technical tricks are just a way of prying those different interpretations and reactions that exist for all books a little further apart-- appropriate for a book about parallel realities and differing perceptions of truth!

BD: This project was successfully funded through Indiegogo. What can you tell us about your decision to use crowdfunding, as well as the benefits that it provides for indie creators?

AR: Crowdfunding is such a great way to build a community of folks who are on your side as a creator. This is my third crowdfunded project, and while it's a big burden of responsibility not to let your backers down, it's also incredibly energizing and motivating to have this built-in fan base who are excited about what you're doing and as eager as you to get to the finish line.

More practically, it's really nice to have some funds up front that you can budget with-- you know you can spend a certain amount of money on marketing or cover art or whatever without going into the red-- and that makes a huge difference to stress levels compared to just trusting up front that you'll do well enough to break even.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Orion and Niko’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

AR: Subcutanean is a very personal story for me-- it's a delayed coming-of-age story at heart, about an awkwardly shy young man finishing college without haven broken into the dating pool or figuring out some fundamental things about himself. I personally was a very late bloomer, and I've always had a hard time with certain kinds of YA stories, especially whose protagonists have big, life-changing revelations and wrap up all their self-development before their senior year of high school. That wasn't my experience at all, and I wanted to write a book about a character in that same position.

BD: Do you foresee expanding the novel into subsequent books or even into other entertainment mediums, if given the opportunity?

AR: The story itself stands alone pretty well, so I don't foresee any sequels. An adaptation would be fascinating, though, especially if the adapters tried in some way to preserve the shifting alternate versions! I think you'd have to do something very different to make it work in a different medium, and I'd love to see someone try.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

AR: In addition to books and digital games, I've also been working on some tabletop roleplaying games, especially the ones that are rules-light and story-heavy. I'm really interested in how these games can give a group of players the tools to improvise a compelling story together without necessarily having any writing or improv training. I might have some new things coming out in that space later this year; sign up for my project news mailing list if you're interested in that kind of thing.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Subcutanean and your other work?

AR: You can visit subcutanean.textories.com to find out more about the project and how to get your own unique copy. There are some links to design blog posts on there if you're curious about the technical details of how I pulled it off. You can also follow two bots on Twitter that are tweeting out different versions of the novel: @subcutanean2160 and @subcutanean6621.

The following is an interview with writer E. Latimer regarding the upcoming release of her Young Adult novel, Witches of Ash and Ruin, from Hachette/Little. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Latimer about the inspiration behind the story, her creative process in bringing Witches to life, the impact that the story may have with readers, and more!

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the upcoming release of your YA fantasy novel, Witches of Ash and Ruin, through Hachette/Little! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?

E. Latimer: Thank you so much!

Okay, so when I was first drafting the book, I referred to it as the “Literal Man-eating Irish Bisexual Witches” book, but that’s just entirely too long to fit on the cover, and it doesn’t make a great blurb either.

My short, little pitch is “rival covens must band together to defeat a witch-murdering serial killer, before one of them is next.” It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what inspired the book, if I’m honest. I’ve always been obsessed with witchy women. I think my witches were born of a mashup of all my favorite characters: Molly Weasley, Sabrina, Maleficent, The Owens from Practical Magic, Blue and her family from The Raven Boys. And, of course, I absolutely love Irish mythology, and serial killers, so it was only natural for me to just…mash it all together in some way.

BD: The novel deftly combines ancient Celtic mythology with modern witchcraft. What can you share with us about your creative process in weaving these narratives together, and what have been some of your creative influences?

EL: I like your “deftly combines” description better than my “mash it together.” We’ll use that going forward.

What I love about Irish mythology is also the very thing that can make it a bit of a difficult subject to tackle. There’s a lot of holes in the stories, missing information, and conflicting narratives. It’s all very mysterious, simply because of how it was passed down to us. Nearly all of it was filtered through Christian monks and people like Julius Caesar, which resulted in the stories being “edited” with considerable creativity.

It sort of feels like there’s not a lot set in stone, so you can play with it a lot more freely, and I was able to make it fit in really nicely with a more modern form of witchcraft. A lot of witches actually do worship the old gods, many of them Celtic, so it seemed natural to me. From there, I tweaked the mythology to fit my world, and also the witchcraft, to give the magic more obvious and immediate results.

BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Dayna and Meiner’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?

EL: Dayna’s story, in particular, had some very personal elements for me. The form of OCD that she struggles with over the course of the story is my own, and writing it was both challenging and therapeutic. Dayna and Meiner also both struggle with being queer women in a conservative religious town. I really wanted to explore my own feelings about growing up bisexual in a conservative Christian home. In Witches, Dayna is past the point of wrestling with herself and is trying to deal with family, but my own experience was much more insular. I really was my own worst enemy, which is something I’d like to explore in future books.

I’m hoping queer women can see themselves in Meiner and Dayna, in both their frustrations and triumphs. We don’t get enough queer women in YA fiction (though 2020 seems to be a much better year for it!), and we certainly don’t get to see enough f/f in fantasy at all.

BD: Do you foresee expanding the novel into subsequent books or even into other entertainment mediums, if given the opportunity?

EL: I like this question, because YES, I would love to write a second book. I’m not done with these witches. I’ve actually got the plot for a trilogy all written out. It all depends on how Book One does, though, so folks, pre-order Witches of Ash and Ruin, please! I can promise queer witches, serial killers, and blood magic.

As for other mediums, there is an audiobook being released on March 3rd, as well. It’s narrated by the fabulous Katharine Lee McEwan, who has the most amazing accent.

And I mean, yeah, I’d love to expand it into other things. I’m completely obsessed with Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and I feel like witches are a big thing right now. So, if a film or TV opportunity came up, I certainly wouldn’t say no.

BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?

EL: Right now, I’m editing another book about witches. This one is a middle grade and is set to be released in 2021 by Tundra Books.

I’m also drafting a book I’m currently referring to as “Bisexual Plant Druids & Demon Kings: A working title.” I don’t think that one will fit on the cover either.

BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Witches of Ash and Ruin and your other work?

EL: You can find everything over on my website, under the “books” tab.

Author bio:E. Latimer is the author of the Young Adult fantasy novel WITCHES OF ASH AND RUIN (March 3, 2020; Hachette/Little) and a Middle Grade novel, THE STRANGE AND DEADLY PORTRAITS OF BRYONY GRAY (Tundra Books), which was nominated for the Red Maple Fiction Award. She lives with her partner in Victoria, British Columbia, and, in her spare time, she makes silly vlogs with the Word Nerds about writing, and reads excessively.

Synopsis for WITCHES OF ASH AND RUIN:Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch. Plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating granddaughter of their coven leader, Meiner King.

And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester—an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. Whose motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, which Dayna and Meiner find themselves at the center of.